The trend is to make homes more energy efficient in order to conserve energy as well as saving money for the owner. While this is generally desirable, it does increase the problem of indoor air pollution. Some studies have indicated that indoor air is 50 times more polluted than outdoor air. Among some of the indoor pollutants detected include cleaning product residues, smoke particles, formaldehyde, pollens, dander, molds and mildews, fungi, dust mites, etc.
While these pollutants are present in the outdoor environment, they are greatly reduced by the combined action of an abundant oxygen supply due to trees, shrubs and other oxygen producing vegetation, radiation from soil and rocks, friction between the layers of wind, ultraviolet radiation form the sun, rain and the splitting of water droplets by the action of waterfalls and lightening all of which combine to produce negative ions and ozone. Dangerous ions cling to the ozone and fall out of the atmosphere greatly decreasing the pollutant concentration. This is evident in the “clean air” feeling that people experience after a thunderstorm and around a waterfall.
Ionizing air cleaners are known in the art. The most effective units employ some sort of air moving component such as a fan to ensure that the created ozone is able to attract and neutralize the pollutants present in the room. This tends to make the units noisy and cost more to operate. Additionally, they tend to create a “clean zone” or “clean air island” around the unit that diminishes in effectiveness as a person moves away. There are units that do not utilize a fan, but these units are even more prone to creating clean zones concentrated around the unit. There is a need for an ionizing cleaner that effectively cleans an entire space that is easy to operate, does not consume an inordinate amount of power, is quiet and does not take up room space.